How Does Mold Affect Your Health?

How and why does mold grow?

Did you know that mold can grow just about anywhere? Mold needs three major things to grow: food, moisture, and oxygen. There is only one of those three things it is possible to limit inside your home. You have to breathe, so oxygen is out. Your home is built of all kinds of material that mold likes to eat such as drywall, carpets, wood, etc. So the only one of the three things you could limit is moisture. Preventing leaks throughout your home is one of the best ways to prevent mold damage. To learn more check out our posts: Top 6 Types of Water Damage and How to Avoid Them, and Home of 10,000 Leaks: Why Water Damage Leads To Mold.

Why is mold a health problem?

Mold is an insidious, invisible predator in your home. It hides in places no one ever thinks to look like under cabinets, in crawl spaces, and behind furniture. People may spend weeks, months, and even years fighting illness, and never know what they are really fighting…mold. Many of our customers find us after a recommendation from their doctor, that they may in fact have a mold problem, and not just an illness.

Mold is most often associated with allergies, but mold is much more menacing than people know. While all molds have the potential to cause irritation and allergy symptoms, molds can also cause much more dangerous health problems including: fungal poisoning and mental health problems. You can learn more about mycotoxin poisoning in our article: When Mold Is Worse Than Allergies. To learn more about how mold can affect mental health check out our articles: Mold and Mycotoxins: Effects on the Brain and Nervous System in Adults and Effects of Mold on Children’s Health.

Case Study – Local Homeowner with Health Issues Calls Branch for Help

To give you a specific example of how mold can affect your health, this article describes a recent call we received from one of our real customers. Let’s call him Mr. Smith. (A common name, but not our customer’s name! Names have been changed to protect customer identity.) Mr. Smith had been having some adverse health issues, and his doctor suggested he have his home checked for mold. Mr. Smith called us, and we came out to inspect the property.

The following information comes directly from the Mold and Indoor Air Quality Inspection Report we created for Mr. Smith. We treat each mold inspection as an investigation, and leave no stone unturned! Our customers receive an in depth report including: photographs, descriptions of problem areas, and our recommendations to fix any problems we find. If there are no problems, we report that as well! Sometimes, there are only minor problems to fix, and we may recommend the homeowner can fix the problem themselves. You can check out our A Simple Guide To Cleaning Mold to learn how to clean up areas of mold that are less than 10 square feet.

Excessive Dust

The first thing our inspector observed upon entering the home was an excessive amount of dust. The amount of dust observed on the drapes, ceilings, carpet and other areas of the home was enough to cause respiratory distress, especially for allergy sufferers.

Digging Deeper – Mold Issues

Our inspector continued the investigation and found mold in several locations in the home. In the hallways and the bathroom, mold was found on the ceilings. So, our inspector took a look in the attic.

Roofing Problems

When the roof had been replaced with a standing seam metal roof, the roofers covered the attic vent holes from the previous roof. Commonly, standing seam metal roofs are vented through the ridge of the roof. The new roof had not been vented at all, and the attic was retaining moisture. That moisture was causing the mold to grow in the attic and on the drywall of the ceilings.

Plumbing Leaks

The home had several plumbing leaks that had been in place for some time. All of the locations with leaks had mold growing on the drywall in those areas. The hall bathroom had a hole in the wall behind the shower allowing air from the crawlspace to enter the home. According to our customer, a leak in the laundry room had been there for several years. The mold was very heavy in that area and considered a health hazard.

HVAC and Crawl Space Issues

Ground moisture and condensation from the HVAC ductwork created a very humid environment in the crawlspace. The excess moisture has resulted in significant mold growth on the wooden floor framing components, such as the subflooring and floor joists. In addition, there was rot damage from previous leaks. The mold from the crawlspace was entering the home by drafting upward through cracks in the framing and through pipe, wire, and ductwork penetrations.